Here Are the Most Impersonated Brands in Phishing Attacks

If you have ever received an email that asked you to click on a link lest your account with a particular service get disabled, it’s almost certain that it was a phishing attempt. These emails might look like they come from a legitimate source, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, they’re an attempt to get your log in credentials or payment information.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that phishing attacks like these are some of the most frequent cyber attacks that get made. They can result in issues such as you losing access to confidential information, or even intellectual property getting leaked to the Dark Web. As a result of the fact that this is the case, organizations should continuously train their employees for the purposes of making these attacks less successful than might have been the case otherwise.

Proofpoint just released the 2024 iteration of its State of the Phish report which reveals which brands end up getting phished the most with all things having been considered and taken into account.

It turns out that Microsoft was the most impersonated brand by far, with 68 million phishing emails sent out using its name in 2023 alone. Of these 68 million emails, 20 million talked about an Office 365 subscription because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making users more likely to click.

Adobe came in at a distant second with 9.4 million, closely followed by DHL with 8.8 million. Google then came in fourth with 6.1 million emails, and AOL managed to close out the top five with 4.4 million emails.

It bears mentioning that people still using AOL might be less tech savvy than those that are using more recent email clients, and that might create a situation wherein they’d click on links due to note knowing the harm that they can cause. It’s essential that people and employees alike be trained so that they steer clear of these links.

Chart: DIW

Read next: One Out of Six Phishing Email Attachments Get Opened, New Report Reveals
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World